I’ve read most of Lacey Alexander’s books, and I have to say, I mostly like ’em. Now and again you get a bad one, but hey, nobody’s perfect right?

I’ve read a few reviews of this book and it always makes me chuckle when I see negative comments re the sexual content. I can’t actually believe that people are still pretending to read a Lacey Alexander book because of its philosophical meanderings and high brow content. Seriously? If you want War and Peace and deep and meaningful, you’re not going to find it within the pages of a Lacey Alexander Special, you’re just not. I hope that doesn’t hurt Ms Alexander too much, but these books will probably not change your life for the better.

First time readers can be forgiven for not knowing what to expect, but for the record, Ms Alexander’s books are filled with dirty, filthy sex. Sex with multiple people, sex outdoors, sex with inanimate objects, voyeuristic and exhibitionist sex. Basically, it’s a book chock full of sex scenes. Ok? Good, let’s move on.

Bad Girl By Night seems to be the first book of a new series called H.O.T COPS. and the series is described thusly:

“Meet the H.O.T. Cops, a group of alpha males trained together in law enforcement but naturally skilled at the arts of pleasure and seduction.”

Here’s the blurb from Lacey’s website:

The people of Turnbridge, Michigan see Carly Winters as the respectable—yet painfully single—good girl. None of them knows what she does miles away – where she becomes Desiree, a seductress who lures (do you think “lure” is too strong a word?) men into nights of heated passion. There she is free to experience what she can’t with local guys: uninhibited sex. On the night she meets Jake Lockhart, she suddenly finds herself in the middle of a fantasy she’s longed for but has never dared try. And after it’s over, she walks away and goes back to being sweet, small town Carly.

Until the day when she’s introduced to the new cop in town –Jake, the man who knows her deepest, darkest secret. His arrival in Turnbridge turns her quiet, safe world upside down. As they are relentlessly drawn to each other, Carly’s good and bad girl personas clash – yet she clings to her image even while Jake challenges her. Soon Carly must decide what she’s willing to lose to become who she really needs to be…

When you read that blurb, don’t you get visions of a conflicted youthful Madonna (And by Madonna, I’m referring to the pop icon, not the vestal virgin, Darlings) trying to shake off her Catholic upbringing by trying to hump Jesus? No? Just me then…

Moving on swiftly…

What I Liked

The sex.

I find that in each book that Ms Alexander releases, she tries to outdo herself in terms of how skanky a sex scene she can write. I still don’t think she can ever hope to match the skanky sex scene in Sin City where our intrepid heroine ends up having a threesome in the back of a limo with two guys she’d literally just met the hour before, and the hero. Aaahhh the good old days of Elloras Cave eh?

Actually, there was that scene in Key West where the supposedly prudish and repressed heroine gets up on stage and masturbates for the audience. That book was full of all kinds of win! Ahhhhh memories…

I also quite liked Carly, she was the quintessential Lacey Alexander heroine. Apparently sexually repressed, but still happy to go at it with the hero and his friends when the opportunity arose. No pun intended.

There was also a rare, deep and meaningful bit in the book, where we discover that Jake isn’t as sexually free as we were initially led to believe. He had his issues too, and it gave weight to a story that otherwise would have been all about the heroine’s Virgin/Slut complex. I also liked that the villain of the piece gets his just-desserts in the end. I fairly cheered at this point.

What Made Me Want To Stab Myself In The Eye

I don’t have a problem suspending belief when reading erotic romance, I have to do it regularly, but even I had issues with the speed with which our sexually repressed heroine was suddenly ‘cured’. One day she was a prude who due to her past went out and shagged complete strangers whilst pretending to be someone else, and the next day after a good rogering from the hero, was no longer that shy sexually inhibited Almost-Virgin Slut that we’d grown to know and love.
I’m no psychologist, but I’m pretty sure these sort of deep-seated sexual issues take just a bit longer to get over. Ya know?

Overall Verdict

Ultimately, Bad Girl By Night didn’t make me want to stab myself in the eye with a burning hot fork. This is a good thing. It was a Lacey Alexander book, written by Toni Blake, which means that it flowed well, the characters were interesting, the dialogue was satisfactory, and the emotional arcs were just right. If you’re a person who doesn’t like sex in her books, trust me, you will not enjoy this latest offering. These two people have sex at every opportunity, and all holes are explored. I beg of you, stay away.

For the rest of you, the verdicts will vary. If you’re a stickler for a strong plot device, well rounded characters, and realistic scenes, you better just keep on truckin’. This book isn’t for you either. However, if you’re a fantasist who likes downright skanky sex in her books, run, don’t walk, to buy this book. You wont be disappointed. Much.

My colour rating for this book is PURPLE = so bad it’s bloody marvellous!

You can learn more about Toni Blake writing as Lacey Alexander here, read an excerpt here, and buy the book from the UK here, and from the US here. (Yes, I’ve finally given up, Amazon actually runs the world now dammit!)